How to Download Torrents on iPad (Without Jailbreak)

Want to download torrents on iPad at full speed, but afraid of jailbreaking your iOS device? Wondering if you can download torrents on your iPhone without jailbreak? Well, that should not be a problem if you follow the method featured in this article.

Introduction

Previously, I had written a post featuring the best torrent downloader app for an iPhone. In that I had mentioned a much easier way to download torrents on your iPhone, iPad or even on an iPod touch. But there’s a catch in that.

These torrent downloading apps can be installed only on a jailbroken iOS device from third party app stores like Cydia. This can be a problem to some iOS users for whom jailbreaking may be a strict no-no. However, the good news is that, there is a work around to this problem.

In this article I am sharing a new idea that would help you download torrents on your iOS device without the need of a jailbreak.

What are torrents?

Torrenting is a file sharing protocol on the internet that is fundamentally different from all other ways of downloading a file. In the traditional way of downloading a file, a file can only be downloaded from a single source on the internet. However, in torrents’ case, a file can be downloaded, bit by bit, from the source of upload as well as from fellow downloaders. Hence, by using up multiple sources of downloading simultaneously, torrents can potentially increase the speed of download of a file when compared to direct downloads.

While downloading a torrent file there are three types of sharing sources that you will come across.

1. Users who have completed their download and are sharing/seeding it for others to download are called seeders. The more seeders a file has, the faster the download is bound to complete.
2. Users who only have a portion of the file, but are uploading it and downloading the rest at the same time are called peers. Peers are very useful in increasing the overall speed of downloading a torrent file.
3. Users who have just started downloading the torrent and have no portion of it to share with the others are called Leechers.

The torrent files themselves are just trackers that keep track of the different download locations in real time. They manage the seeding and leeching of a file to different computers.

Why Torrent?

The internet has developed rapidly in the past two decades, but not everyone can afford a high-speed internet connection yet. As a result, slower internet speeds may make it cumbersome for such users to download heavy sized files.

In that context torrents have emerged as the easiest means to share large-sized files among multiple internet users. Additionally, the speed of downloading torrents may not be limited to your ISP speed. Using proper porting techniques anyone may get download speeds that are much faster than what they are otherwise used to.

Are there Torrent Apps in Apple’s App Store?

Android users have access to loads of torrent clients such as bittorrent and utorrent on Google’s Play Store. These apps can download torrents without a jailbreak or a root access on android devices. At the same time, iOS users struggle to find even a single such app in Apple‘s App Store.

The key reason for this is the set of regulations placed on the App Store by Apple. One of Apple’s guidelines, inspired by its respect for copyrighted content, is to block torrenting apps from entering the iOS platform at any rate. The curators of the App Store follow suit and they have a successful track record in this regard.

That’s where iOS jailbreaking comes into the picture. Jailbreaking unlocks a number of commonly used features that iOS users are otherwise deprived of. One such feature is the ability to download third party apps like uTorrent.

But jailbreaking is a whole other process that has its own learning curve. In case you are skeptical of jailbreaking, there are plenty of alternatives you can use, just like the guide we have written below for downloading torrents on iPad without jailbreak. Mind you, it works for iPhones and iPods as well.

• Download RecBoot   –  Enter/Exit iPad Recovery
• Download Zeusmos  –  Free iPad App Market

How to Download Torrents on iPad (iOS) without jailbreak

In this guide we are going to use a download manager such as ‘iDownloader’ or ‘UC Browser’. We shall use this manager to download torrents so that no jailbreak is required as promised earlier. We will also use two other websites in the process to download torrents at high speeds.

Requirements before downloading torrents on iPad

1. Install a download manager like iDownloader or UC browser. You can download it from Apple’s App Store within a minute or two.

2. Secondly, you will need a torrent website for browsing and saving the torrent files you would like to download. For this you will have to look for a torrent website that is active. A simple Google search for active torrent sites would help you find one.

Steps to download torrents on iPad

Step 1 : Open iDownloader or UC browser on your iPad/iPhone/iPod Touch and open the internet browser given in that app. Browsers of different download managers work differently.

Step 2 : Go to any working torrent site. Here, we have used “Piratebay” as an example. You can use any working torrent site of your choice. In that torrent site, search for the legal torrent you want to download.

Step 3 :  Long tap the Download link of that particular torrent.

Step 4 : You will get a pop-up with 3 options – ‘Open’, ‘Copy’, ‘Cancel’. Select ‘Copy‘ by tapping on it.

Step 5 : Now, open a new tab on your browser and go to www.zbigz.com.

Step 6 : On the Zbigz website you’ll see a URL field. Paste the Torrent link (which you had copied in step 4) in there and tap on the GO button.

Step 7 : Wait for a moment. Zbigz will now create the download link.

Step 8 : After you get the link, just tap on the download button in the shape of a “down-arrow” which is located beside the file name.

You should see these three options – ‘Download’, ‘Open’ and ‘Copy Link’. Choose the ‘Download‘ option in order to download the file to your iPad.

Alternatively, you can just tap on the download icon in the shape of an ‘up-arrow’ at the bottom of the page in iDownloader. The downloaded file is stored in the ‘Files‘ segment of iDownloader.

That’s it. You have now successfully downloaded a torrent file to your iDevice without having to jailbreak it.

Update 

It is common practice to use ‘Safari‘ in the process of downloading files from sites like ZbigZ. But, the Safari browser sometimes downloads the files and other times streams them directly, which can be a problem. So, sticking to the likes of UC browser and iDownloader can be the better option.

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